TOPIC II -THE INDUSTRIAL ENGINEER’S ROLE IN THE WORKPLACE

Learning Outcomes
After successful completion of this module, the students should be able to:
1. Find out what is the definition of productivity
2. Differentiate the different kinds of productivity measures
3. Know how to optimize productivity
Course Materials
Industrial engineers many times encounter people who do not understand or are
unfamiliar with the term industrial engineer.
Indeed, probably the most commonly asked question of an industrial engineer in the workplace
or outside may be, “What do industrial engineers really do?” IIE defines industrial engineering
as being “concerned with the design, improvement, a n d i n s t a l l a t i o n o f i n t e g r a t e d
s y s t e m s o f p e o p l e , m a t e r i a l s , i n f o r m a t i o n , e q u i p m e n t , a n d energy. It draws
upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, and social
sciences, together with the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design to
specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be obtained from such systems.” This definition
certainly does not succinctly describe what industrial engineers do.
One of the great challenges of the IE profession is communicating the distinct roles
that industrial engineers play when the roles are so diverse and varied across organizations.
From a historical viewpoint, and to some extent still today, industrial engineers are perceived to
be stopwatch-and-clipboard-bound supervisors. A hope for the future is that they will come to be
known and respected in more enlightened organizations for their roles as troubleshooters,
productivity improvement experts, systems analysts, new project managers,
continuous process improvement engineers, plant managers, vice presidents of
operations, and CEOs.
While confusion over the roles of industrial engineers can be a liability, it also
presents opportunities that arise when expectations are allowed to evolve. In many
organizations the roles of industrial engineers have become highly evolved and many industrial
engineering departments have grown to fill a unique niche. Still, the term industrial
engineer largely says more about the training and degree, and less about the actual role played
in most organizations.
The industrial engineering education is an excellent foundation for careers of choice
in today’s business environment. It is comprised of a multitude of different skills and tools that
enable the industrial engineer to act as a master of change and thus make a tremendous impact
in any type of organization. The industrial engineer’s ability to understand how activities
contribute to cost and/or revenue give him or her an advantage in leading divisional or
enterprise-wide process improvement initiatives. The fact that industrial engineers will spend
time to study and thoroughly understand the current activities of an organization and will be able
to link changes to improvement in financial terms, makes the industrial engineer a valuable
asset to the organization. Understanding the current activities, applying creative solutions to
current problems, and measuring their impact in the context of strategy are some of the best
contributions an industrial engineer can make. The ability of many industrial engineers to relate
to coworkers in different departments such as information systems, operations, and finance
makes them great assets in many large organizations.
The ability to understand the constraints and needs of different areas of the business
and translate it to other participants in a change initiative is also something that not all
professionals have. Industrial engineers with this ability are good candidates to facilitate
different forces in an organization, a role that can make the difference between a successful
change initiative and one that fails. In addition, the ability to learn the activities of an
organization on a detailed level, coupled with a knowledge of finance and budgeting, helps to
groom the industrial engineer to become the decision maker of tomorrow. These are some of
the reasons a number of industrial engineers are reaching high levels in today’s organizations.
Challenges for the Industrial Engineering Manager
The challenge of increasing value-added contributions from you and your staffs is especially
important for industrial engineering. Since your background and training is in a technical
discipline, there is a high probability your technical skills gained you recognition as a potential
leader or manager. Most companies equate technical excellence with leadership skills.
However, a word of caution is necessary. Just because you were an excellent technical
contributor does not guarantee you will be an effective leader. To the contrary, your technical
skills may even get in the way of your ability to perform as a good manager. The first step to
becoming an effective manager is to recognize the challenges you will face, some of which are
listed as follows:
1. Setting goals and establishing priorities—
Being an effective manager mandates a change in roles for establishing objectives and
priorities. The role of a leader requires the aptitude and skill for establishing clearly defined
objectives that are meaningful, realistic, and measurable. Priority setting should consider the
criteria of the seriousness, urgency, and future impact of the concerns facing you and your team
on the job.
2. Management and motivational style—
Technical knowledge is no longer the sole deciding factor to achieving success. Odds are that
your sharp technical skills got you recognized as a potential manager. As a manager
or team leader, however, your behavior patterns become more important. Your management
style in dealing with and motivating people may often play a more significant role in getting
the right results than your technical skills.
3. New data—
The data you will be working with will be less familiar because they will no longer come just from
the comfort zone of your area of technical expertise. Data will now come from the twilight zone
of the unknown. The information you must process will come from all directions, some of it
factual and some fictitious, some of it objective and some subjective. No matter how good your
process is for analyzing information, you must make sure you are using factual, accurate data.
4. A new sense of urgency—
As a manager, you will be expected to get results now.
Time is money, so you will have to solve problems quickly. Furthermore, you must be right the
first time. You will have to make decisions on the spot with too few or often unclear data.
5. People problems—

Since one of your key resources is the people on your team, you will need the
managerial skills to optimize their performance. Like production equipment or machinery,
a worker’s output can vary for many reasons. You will need new skills to solve people
performance problems. These are the most difficult problems to resolve because the
data will often come from opinions and not necessarily from observed behavior or facts.
6. No longer just one right answer—
As engineers, we have been trained to solve the equation—to find the one right answer. As
managers, we need to understand there are many “right” answers or options to consider. The
challenge is to select the best option depending on the circumstances. Often, the typical
engineering approach is to continue to analyze until the job is100 percent completed. The
effective managerial approach often requires a decision with only50 percent or less of the work
done. A common trap for the engineer-manager is to fall into the analysis-paralysis mode,
searching for the one right answer and wasting valuable time when a less than optimum solution
will often suffice.
7. Delegating or working through others—
Your managerial role requires working with and accomplishing objectives through others. The
three resources you manage are people, time, and money. Your accomplishments are only
as good as the accomplishments of your people. A good manager asks not only “What have my
people done for me today? “but also “What have I done for my people today to help them
perform?”
8. Juggling multiple tasks and using your time wisely—
Management, by definition, requires that you have the ability to handle multiple assignments
or tasks. To do this juggling effectively, you first need an approach for identifying and prioritizing
concerns. Be sure your team is working on the right jobs at the right time. The use of your time
will be different. You will be spending more time in meetings, making presentations, preparing,
and reporting on your team’s progress. Expect more scrutiny because you are responsible for
more resources.
9. Process versus content—
The single biggest mistake of engineering managers, especially new managers, is the inability
to understand the difference between the process and content issues of their jobs. As a result,
the engineering manager will rely on his or her content knowledge

PRODUCTIVITY
Productivity is the quantitative relation between what we produce and we use as a resource to
produce them, i.e., arithmetic ratio of amount produced (output) to the number of resources
(input). Productivity can be expressed as:

Productivity = Output
Input
 Productivity refers to the efficiency of the production system. It is the concept that guides the
management of production system. It is an indicator to how well the factors of production (land,
capital, labor and energy) are utilized.

European Productivity Agency (EPA) has defined productivity as, “Productivity is an attitude of
mind. It is the mentality of progress, of the constant improvements of that which exists. It is the
certainty of being able to do better today than yesterday and continuously. It is the constant
adaptation of economic and social life to changing conditions. It is the continual effort to apply
new techniques and methods. It is the faith in progress.”

A major problem with productivity is that it means many things to many people. Economists
determine it from Gross National Product (GNP), managers view it as cost cutting and speed
up, engineers think of it in terms of more output per hour. But generally accepted meaning is
that it is the relationship between goods and services produced and the resources employed in
their production.

Factors Influencing Productivity

Factors influencing productivity can be classified broadly into two categories:

A. controllable (or internal) factors and
B. un-controllable (or external) factors.

A. CONTROLLABLE FOR INTERNAL FACTORS

1. Product factor: In terms of productivity means the extent to which the product meets
output requirements product is judged by its usefulness. The cost benefit factor of a
product can be enhanced by increasing the benefit at the same cost or by reducing cost
for the same benefit.
2. Plant and equipment: These play a prominent role in enhancing the productivity. The
increased availability of the plant through proper maintenance and reduction of idle time
increases the productivity. Productivity can be increased by paying proper attention to
utilization, age, modernization, cost, investments etc.

Factors influencing productivity

3. Technology: Innovative and latest technology improves productivity to a greater extent.

Automation and information technology helps to achieve improvements in material
handling, storage, communication system and quality control.
 The various aspects of technology factors to be considered are:

i. Size and capacity of the plant,

ii. Timely supply and quality of inputs,
iii. Production planning and control,
iv. Repairs and maintenance,
v. Waste reduction, and
vi. Efficient material handling system.
4. Material and energy:
Efforts to reduce materials and energy consumption brings about considerable
improvement in productivity.

i. Selection of quality material and right material.

ii. Control of wastage and scrap.
iii. Effective stock control.
iv. Development of sources of supply.
v. Optimum energy utilization and energy savings.
vi. Human factors:
Productivity is basically dependent upon human competence and
skill. Ability to work effectively is governed by various factors such as
education, training, experience aptitude etc., of the employees.
Motivation of employees will influence productivity.
vii. Work methods: Improving the ways in which the work is done
(methods) improves productivity, work study and industrial
engineering techniques and training are the areas which improve the
work methods, which in term enhance the productivity.
viii. Management style: This influence the organizational design,
communication in organization, policy and procedures. A flexible and
dynamic management style is a better approach to achieve higher
productivity.

B. UNCONTROLLABLE (OR) EXTERNAL FACTORS

1. Structural adjustments: Structural adjustments include both economic and social

changes. Economic changes that influence significantly are:

i. Shift in employment from agriculture to manufacturing industry,

ii. Import of technology, and
iii. Industrial competitiveness.

Social changes such as women’s participation in the labor force, education, cultural

values, attitudes are some of the factors that play a significant role in the improvement of

productivity.
2. Natural resources: Manpower, land and raw materials are vital to the productivity
improvement.
3. Government and infrastructure: Government policies and program are significant to
productivity practices of government agencies, transport and communication power, fiscal
policies (interest rates, taxes) influence productivity to the greater extent.
 Total Productivity Measure (TPM)
It is based on all the inputs. The model can be applied to any manufacturing organization or
service company.

Total productivity =Total tangible output +Total tangible input

Total tangible output = Value of finished goods produced + Value of partial units produced +

Dividends from securities + Interest+ Other income

Total tangible input = Value of (human + material + capital + energy+ other inputs) used. The
word tangible here refers to measurable.

The output of the firm as well as the inputs must be expressed in a common measurement unit.

Partial Productivity Measures (PPM)

Depending upon the individual input partial productivity measures are expressed as:

Partial productivity =Total output/Individual input

Labor productivity =Total output/Labor input (in terms of man hours)

Capital productivity =Total output/Capital input

Material productivity =Total output/Material input

Energy productivity =Total output/Energy input

One of the major disadvantages of partial productivity measures is that there is an over
emphasis on one input factor to the extent that other input is underestimated or even ignored.

PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT TECHNIQUES

A. Technology Based
1. Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM), and
Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems (CIMS): CAD refers to design of
products, processes or systems with the help of computers. The impact of CAD on human
productivity is significant for the advantages of CAD are:

a. Speed of evaluation of alternative designs,

b. Minimization of risk of functioning, and
c. Error reduction.
 CAM is very much useful to design and control the manufacturing. It helps to achieve the

effectiveness in production system by line balancing.

d. Production Planning and Control
e. Capacity Requirements Planning (CRP), Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP II)
and Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)
f. Automated Inspection.

2. Computer integrated manufacturing:

Computer integrated manufacturing is characterized by automatic line balancing, machine
loading (scheduling and sequencing), automatic inventory control and inspection.

a. Robotics
b. Laser technology
c. Modern maintenance techniques
d. Energy technology
e. Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)

B. Employee Based

1. Financial and non-financial incentives at individual and group level.

2. Employee promotion.
3. Job design, job enlargement, job enrichment and job rotation.
4. Worker participation in decision-making
5. Quality Circles (QC), Small Group Activities (SGA)
6. Personnel development.

C. Material Based

1. Material planning and control

2. Purchasing, logistics
3. Material storage and retrieval
4. Source selection and procurement of quality material
5. Waste elimination.
D. Process Based

1. Methods engineering and work simplification

2. Job design evaluation, job safety
3. Human factors engineering.

E. Product Based

1. Value analysis and value engineering

2. Product diversification
3. Standardization and simplification
4. Reliability engineering
5. Product mix and promotion.

F. Task Based

1. Management style
2. Communication in the organization
3. Work culture
4. Motivation
5. Promotion group activity.

ILLUSTRATION 1:
A company produces 160 kg of plastic molded parts of acceptable quality by consuming 200 kg
of raw materials for a particular period. For the next period, the output is doubled (320 kg) by
consuming 420 kg of raw material and for a third period, the output is increased to 400 kg by
consuming 400 kg of raw material.

SOLUTION:
During the first year, production is 160 kg

Productivity =Output/Input=160/200=0.8 0r 80%

For the second year, production is increased by 100%.

Productivity =Output/Input=320/420=0.76 or 76%

For the third period, production is increased by 150%

Productivity =Output/Input=400/400=1.0 i.e., 100%↑

From the above illustration it is clear that, for second period, though production has doubled,
productivity has decreased from 80% to 76% for period third, production is increased by 150%
and correspondingly productivity increased from 80% to 100%.

ILLUSTRATION 2:

Determine the productivity if four workers installed 720 sq. yards of carpeting in 8 hrs.
Solution: Productivity= Yards of carpet installed

Labor hours worked

= 720 sq.yards

4 workersx8 hours per worker

=720 yards

32 hours = 22.5 yards/hour

Assessments/Activities
Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aZGTW3qGAE what is industrial engineering; what it does
you tube .com watch Industrial engineers career video
you tube.com watch Industrial engineers make a difference
EXERCISES:
I. Essay

a. Why is productivity necessary in producing a product? Answer in 10 sentences

b. In your own opinion, why is productivity dependent upon human ability and skills?

II.Answer the following problems:

a. Determine the productivity of a machine that produce 68 usable pieces in 2

hours
b. A company that processes fruits and vegetables is able to produce 400 cases
of canned peaches in ½ hour with 2 workers. What is the labor productivity?
III. Recognize what type of productivity techniques are the following:
1. Robotics
2. Work culture
3. Standardization and simplification
4. Job design evaluation, job safety
5. Waste elimination
6. Worker participation in decision-making
7. Error reduction.
8. Communication in the organization
9. Modern maintenance techniques
10. Personnel development.